Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Phil Mayor]

breathe wrote on Sat, 04 September 2010 02:59

I was recently listening to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and that shit was not done on one 24-track. Nicholas

It was done at Rockfield in Wales on a single Studer A80. Otto the tech down there once told me so.

[J.J. Blair]

Eric H. wrote on Sat, 04 September 2010 06:38

How many times did it happen to you that even with a 100+ tracks in  the DAW, when mix day arrives, there is always someone wanting to add a synth part, or add a little perc, or change a line and redo a verse. Those things probably didn't happen 30 years ago. Or did they?

I had to wait in the lobby of Oasis Mastering once, for two hours past my session start time, because the band ahead of me was adding additional parts DURING THEIR MASTERING SESSION.

I wonder what the mix was like!

[Kassonica]

J.J. Blair wrote on Sun, 05 September 2010 07:55

Eric H. wrote on Sat, 04 September 2010 06:38 How many times did it happen to you that even with a 100+ tracks in  the DAW, when mix day arrives, there is always someone wanting to add a synth part, or add a little perc, or change a line and redo a verse. Those things probably didn't happen 30 years ago. Or did they? I had to wait in the lobby of Oasis Mastering once, for two hours past my session start time, because the band ahead of me was adding additional parts DURING THEIR MASTERING SESSION. I wonder what the mix was like!

Speechless........

One mastering engineer in Australia  had a U47 setup in a vocal booth next to his Mastering suite when I was there, and when I asked him, he told me the band that was in before us had been recutting a main vocal in one of the tracks.... WTF is that......

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Do a search on Audio Kinetics and QLock for early synchronization.

Rail

[ssltech]

Rail Jon Rogut wrote on Sun, 05 September 2010 03:56

Do a search on Audio Kinetics and QLock for early synchronization. Rail

Were they the first...?

I know they were the first that I used, but I think BTX/Shadow may have been earlier... I dunno, though; I'm just musing.

Either way, I'm a touch galled that a thread gets started just because someone can't accept that creative minds can do things which he's not thought to do, and so apparently refuses to believe...

-Maybe I should just stop visiting.

Keith

[jrmintz]

One of the most profound revelations you can have is when you grasp just how astoundingly good the really good people are. Once you do you can start working on what you need to do to learn to get better. Until you grasp it you assume that everyone's limitations are the same as yours. It's called reinventing the wheel.

I worked on a record with a guy who had been in a successful 80's hair band. Because he'd never worked with anything that played higher than a guitar, he couldn't imagine anything useful up there. I heard big orchestrational holes in the highest registers that could have had something cool in them. He just couldn't go there.

[Kurt Foster]

8 tracks! Check it out.

http://www.sharonjonesandthedapkings.com/

I stumbled across these guys watching Letterman or Ferguson I forget which. Then I saw an article on them in the May 2010 EQ, the one with Goldfrapp on the cover.  

At the bottom right of the Daptones link I posted, , there's a tape transport icon where you can play the whole album. If you have download helper you can d / load the whole album in crappy mp3 format. After listening I decided I am buying the CD as soon as I come across it. These guys are waaaay coooool imo.

kurt

[Otitis Media]

Keith, I think what's bugging you (and me) is that the OP sweeps aside the practice of bouncing and planning and asserts that there's no way of working within 24 tracks to make incredibly lush, dense soundscapes.

[Kurt Foster]

Lush Soundscapes?

How many tracks were used for

Good Vibrations? You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling? Penny Lane? All of Sgt Pepper?

and what about all the Sinatra stuff? Numerous Classical works?

More tracks are only an opportunity to screw it up.

Great players great mics great rooms. yeah, that's the ticket.  

That said, the most fun and satisfaction I have ever had recording was with 8 tracks. Wild flying in background stacks, premixing and bouncing rhythm tracks. In the end I felt like I had really done something that most other people couldn't do. Very satisfying imo.  

[ssltech]

When I started we had two rooms; a 1" 8-track room and a 2" 24-track room.

Each engineer was ONLY allowed to 'graduate' to 24-track after recording plenty of stuff on the 8-track, and getting familiar with making decisions; thereby learning the consequences of both good and bad decisions. We learned to chop multitracks, and to section-mix and assemble. There was no automation; just one inch with eight tracks, and sixteen faders to blend it all with.

Drumkits were recorded to 2-ch stereo, with snare FX etc. printed into the balance. guitar, bass etc. were recorded until we had six tracks, then if we needed more tracks, we usually had to compile the whole multitrack to two tracks in stereo, again, with all effects printed into the mix.

Then the last few overdubs and vocals, then the "mix".

If you screwed up, you lived with it. If you got it right early on, you were rewarded with a solid sound at the end.

Most of the engineers who came through those days in our humble studio are now very successful. Like working live, it FORCES you to see 'the bigger picture' earlier on, take risks, and consider what's important about a satisfying result from the very beginning.

People who've only ever known the 'luxury' of infinite-track DAW sessions; who can record dozens of tracks 'just in case the track takes a different direction' and of keeping dozens of ad-libs and options, they kjust never seem to develop this skill.

Make every note count. -You just get a different result.

[Wireline]

and as I read thru these...the bittersweet reality is a project on which I am engaged, the 'producer' demands 7 (yes...7) versions of the chorus just for the bass track's playing style for one song...

The tune in question has nothing more than drums, scratch vox, basses, and rhythm gtr, and as of yesterday, sets at 51 tracks, 114 takes.

The good news is -  I am working

[Hank Alrich]

Wireline wrote on Sun, 05 September 2010 12:17

and as I read thru these...the bittersweet reality is a project on which I am engaged, the 'producer' demands 7 (yes...7) versions of the chorus just for the bass track's playing style for one song... The tune in question has nothing more than drums, scratch vox, basses, and rhythm gtr, and as of yesterday, sets at 51 tracks, 114 takes. The good news is -  I am working

I think you'll be working on that one for a while, Ken. I think the guy is just getting started... <g>

[Tom L]

A very much younger me learned a lot from ping-ponging between two stereo cassette decks...fun times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

[bob ebeling]

Sorry to revive, but I just found this thread and it should be like Catechism was at 12 years old...total memorization for all young dudes.

On a related note my Wife's school has decided to allow the kids to use their cell-phones during class.

Keith and JJ, I absolutely agree.  

If you are under 25 you should be given no more than 8 tracks.  At 30 you can have 16.
35=24.  
Stop.  
Apply for special permissions for over 24.
Wait.  This is all wrong.  
You should get one track until you prove you can do anything worthy with it!  

Am I spelling out a description of 'The Priests of the Temples of Syrinx' here?  
 

[Fletcher]

In many ways I agree with Bob -- BUT -- it shouldn't be about age, it should be about "flight hours" and expertise [like Keith's experience of you start with 8 and when you can prove yourself worthy you move up].

Unfortunately - we have "mix engineers" these days who are supposed to take the horribly tracked crap and turn it into pure platinum... which they unfortunately do by firing drum samples, auto-tune [blah, blah, blah].

While what we do was once a "discipline" its now been democratized to where there are 197,000 tracks available in Pro-sTools [and similar] so nobody has to make an actual decision or learn how to be an actual "balance engineer".  They just have to get the bestest Chinese clone of a U-67 and a couple "ribbon mics" [so they can be as cool as Ross Hogarth and Butch Vig] and they're the rising stars of tomorrow [and they know they're the shit because they have the SAE "diploma" to prove they're experienced!!].

Shoot me, I'm old and in the way.